appmarsh

Wednesday, 6 November 2019

Take Your Pick of Sony Bluetooth Headphones For $38, Today Only

Sony Wireless Headphone Gold Box | $38 | Amazon

FCC Formally Approves Merger of T-Mobile and Sprint

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday formally approved the $26 billion merger between T-Mobile and Sprint. The approval was the last regulatory hurdle to creating a new mobile carrier.

The FCC filing means T-Mobile and Sprint will be allowed to join together as "New T-Mobile" to become a dominant third carrier in the United States alongside Verizon and AT&T. The Department of Justice approved the merger in July.

The finalized order came after a 3-2 vote along partisan lines, with both Democrats against it. FCC boss Ajit Pai said in a statement that the merger would be good for consumers and the U.S. as a whole:

"It would bring the benefits of the next generation of wireless technology to American consumers and advance American leadership in 5G. It would help millions in rural America benefit from high-speed 5G mobile broadband service... and it would promote competition."

However, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel argued that the consolidation of the two companies would likely follow the same path as previous mergers had, leading to higher prices, fewer jobs, and poorer service for the majority of customers:

"We've all seen what happens when market concentration increases following a merger. A condensed airline industry brought us baggage fees and smaller seats, even as the price of fuel fell. A condensed pharmaceutical industry has led to a handful of drug companies raising the prices of lifesaving medications, taking advantage of those struggling with illness. There's no reason to think the mobile-phone industry will be different."

Together, the two companies have committed to building out a nationwide 5G network covering 97 percent of the U.S. population within three years and 99 percent within six years. T-Mobile and Sprint have also promised that they will not raise prices for three years following the completion of the merger.

In an attempt to ensure a competitive wireless carrier market, the FFC also wants to see Dish become the fourth nationwide facilities-based wireless carrier in the United States. Dish has announced that it plans to deploy a 5G broadband network capable of serving 70 percent of the U.S. population by June 2023.

In 2011, regulators blocked AT&T's attempted acquisition of T-Mobile. In 2014, they blocked an attempted merger between Sprint and T-Mobile. This past July, however, the Department of Justice approved the merger.

A number of states have filed an antitrust lawsuit in U.S. federal court to block the proposed transaction; that lawsuit remains on the docket and must be resolved before the merger can go forward.

T-Mobile and Sprint anticipate that the merger will be permitted to close by the end of the year. If it does go ahead, it will combine two of the four major wireless carriers in the United States, giving the new company nearly 100 million customers.

Tags: Sprint, T-Mobile, FCC

This article, "FCC Formally Approves Merger of T-Mobile and Sprint" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

from MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - All Stories https://ift.tt/32fGm7m

Hero Politician Shuts Down Heckler With 'OK Boomer' During Climate Speech in New Zealand

Chlöe Swarbrick, a 25-year-old member of New Zealand’s parliament, was interrupted by another politician while giving a speech about climate change on Tuesday. And rather than stop everything to address the heckles, she did what anyone of her generation has learned to do when confronted with climate deniers. She said…

Fossil Dips Back Into Hybrids With a Feature Filled Watch I Might Wear

In the world of smartwatches, Fossil is best known for being Google’s main partner for Wear OS watches. Today, it’s taking a step out from Google’s shadow with a new hybrid analog watch, the Hybrid HR. And, as the name suggests, the Hybrid HR adds integrated heart rate monitoring, plus a hybrid display that smartwatch…

Twitter Issues iOS App Update to Fix Buggy Auto-Refresh Timeline Behavior

Twitter has pushed out a point release for its official iPhone and iPad app after numerous reports of buggy auto-refresh behavior began appearing on social media.

A number of users who updated to version 8.1 of the app, released last week, said that their Twitter timeline was refreshing randomly and making them lose track of what they were reading.

It's unclear what's been causing the jumpy auto-scrolling behavior – presumably whatever changes were made to the auto-refresh function were supposed to happen invisibly and update the top of the timeline so that scrolling up to see new tweets would be seamless.

We know your timeline auto-scrolling on iOS is frustrating and we’re sorry for the inconvenience. We’re working on fixing this now. Thanks for sticking with us.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 4, 2019

Regardless, Twitter acknowledged the "frustrating" issue on Monday and asked users for patience while it looked into the problem.

This morning, the company released a fix to its iOS app in the form of version 8.1.5, so make sure you visit the App Store to update if you've been affected by the issue. Direct Link

Tag: Twitter

This article, "Twitter Issues iOS App Update to Fix Buggy Auto-Refresh Timeline Behavior" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

from MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - All Stories https://ift.tt/33m0Ht7